The everyday life of the older people in portuguese cities during the pandemic.

An age-friendly city approach

Abstract

Aging forces
us to rethink cities as an incentive for opportunities in the daily life of the olderly. After
the pandemic confinement, it was applied a survey in the context of the GRAMPCITY Project,
between 2020 and 2021, to 403 people with 65 years old or more from six study areas in
Portugal – Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), subdivided into the city of Lisbon, North
LMA and South LMA; adding three medium cities – Aveiro, Coimbra and Faro and its areas
of influence – were asked about their living conditions, living spaces, housing context, relational
dynamics and forms of mobility. This article aims 1) understand how the experiences
of the olderly people, through their practices and problems, are aligned with what constitute
aspects present in the Age-friendly cities, especially in the context of a pandemic; and 2) to
identify regional differences between study areas. The results show constraints to quality
aging, reinforced by the pandemic, such as: living on the top floors without access to an
elevator; difficulty on walking or parking or the lack of food stores or social spaces; and the
duality between the support provided by family members and neighbors in a pandemic and
the decrease in visits to them. Thus, a regional differentiation in the practices and perceptions
of the respondents became evident, distancing the metropolitan context from the reality
of medium-sized cities, namely in terms of housing conditions, relations with the community
and the impact that the pandemic brought to daily life. It is concluded that some of
the studied aspects deserve greater attention for an effective promotion of the Age-Friendly
City, requiring a specific vision of each territory and community.